A Brief History of Fly Fishing In The UK
Other than a few fragmented references little was written on fly fishing until The Treatyse on Fysshynge with an Angle was published (1496) within The Boke of St. Albans attributed to Dame Juliana Berners. The book contains, along with instructions on rod, line and hook making, dressings for various flies to use at different times in the year. The earliest English poetical treatise on Angling by John Dennys, said to have been a fishing companion of Shakespeare, was published in 1613, The Secrets of Angling, of which 6 verses were quoted in the better known book Izaak Walton’s Compleat Angler (1653), of which the latter two chapters were actually written by his friend Charles Cotton, and described the fishing in the Derbyshire Wye.
British fly-fishing continued to develop in the 19th Century, aided by the emergence of fly fishing clubs, along with the appearance of several books with reference to fly tying and fly fishing techniques. In southern England, dry-fly fishing acquired an elitist reputation as the only real acceptable method of fishing the slower, clearer rivers to the south just like the River Test and the other chalk streams concentrated in Hampshire, Surrey, Dorset and Berkshire (see Southern England Chalk Formation for the geological specifics). The weeds present in these rivers tend to grow very close to the surface, and it had been felt essential to develop new techniques that would keep the fly and the line on the surface of the stream. These became the foundation of all later dry-fly developments. However, there was nothing to prevent the successful employment of wet flies on these chalk streams, as George Edward MacKenzie Skues proved with his nymph and wet fly techniques. To the horror of dry-fly purists, Skues later wrote two books, Minor Tactics for the Chalk Stream, and The Way of a Trout with a Fly, which greatly influenced the development of wet fly fishing. In northern England and Scotland, many anglers also favored wet-fly fishing, where the technique was more accepted and widely practiced than in southern England. One of Scotland’s leading proponents on the wet fly in the early-to-mid 19th century was W.C. Stewart, who published “The Practical Angler” in 1857.
In Scandinavia and the United States, attitudes toward methods of fly fishing were not nearly as rigidly defined, and both dry- and wet-fly fishing were soon adapted to the conditions of those countries.
About the Author
Andy is Managing Director of The Essential Fly, a quality manufacturer of fly fishing flies including salmon flies/salmon fly, trout flies, fly fishing tackle and gear and fly tying materials and fly tying equipment. Andy is a passionate fisherman and always looking at new materials and flies and their effects on the quarry fish.
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